A Guide to Creating a Conceptual E-Commerce UX

Every UX designer wants to create to their maximum potential but it can be difficult to approach without a plan. To best demonstrate a step-by-step system that identifies important design aspects and aids in conceptual decisions, I’ll be going through the concept process of creating a hypothetical E-Commerce UX.

Step 1: About Your Company (Come up with a concept for a company and try to include as much important concrete information that you can into an About paragraph, including values, attributes and what makes your company unique).

About Example: CaseFace is an online-only retailer of protective and decorative cases for all your products. CaseFace values it’s customers and its quality first and foremost, making efforts to provide the best service possible. On the CaseFace website customers have a variety of options to meet their customization needs. They may upload their own design, choose from a massive library of our selected designs or describe the design they want and our team of expert illustrators and designers will render a surprise design based on the description. CaseFace takes pride in promoting artists work and constantly expands its team of in-house artists.

Goal Example: CaseFace is dedicated to becoming the industry leader and the goal of our site is to convince you that we already are. Our site focuses on offering a vast selection of products and designs that are easy for the user to navigate and manipulate to their own desires. We aim to host a trustworthy environment where users feel comfortable conducting business. We hope to provide a service that is simple, affordable, unique, and downright enjoyable to new and returning customers.

Step 3: Identify your target audience (List identifying traits as well as expectations of the site and reason for visiting).

Audience Example: Below you can see a sketch of CaseFace’s target audience. From left to right we have: Jacob Dierker, Michaela Moore, Jocelyn Flores and Dewayne Robinson. Each presented with a few important points to note.

Step 4: Create a User Journey (sketch and describe specific steps a user would take while operating the site with emphasis on the special feature if you can).

Journey Example: Below you can see the four most common steps users take when visiting our website. Entering the site and select the model of case you’d like are essentials, the unique feature is found in step 3 where our user is given the opportunity to utilize our team of expert artists by describing a piece of work that we’ll do our best to bring to life on your selected product.

In the sketch below, from top left to bottom right, are early wireframe sketch concepts of what a user would see during the four steps laid out. Wireframe creation is one of the most useful methods of developing a website concept. However it’s important that we lay the previous groundwork before jumping right in to creating them as it will help us make decisions about design and layout functionality that are more tailored to our primary audience.

Step 5: Find Inspiration (Match each of your steps to a step of a similar website while making sure not to directly copy it).

Inspiration Example: Upon entering the site you’ll notice a large rotating banner that spreads seamlessly across the page inspired by Apple Inc.’s stunning webpage. The second step shows the large inventory and derives inspiration from Cell Phone Accessories page on Walmart.com. The third step is unique to CaseFace as it demonstrates the description system used but was stylistically inspired by the simplicity of Google’s homepage. The final step, the check-out, brilliantly improves upon the check-out process of todays most successful retail business, Amazon.

Summary: In reflection, the steps taken have a unified purpose in creating a more rounded understanding of key decisions. The steps let you see a bigger picture of who you’re designing for which without question leads to a more successful final product. There, now that you have these simple steps you’re ready to try it for yourself. Remember, research first, design second and have fun the whole time!